Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-21350

Memory Safety in Adobe After Effects ≤ 25.6.4

Memory Safety
Published
10 February 2026
Modified
11 February 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0014 4th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-21350 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Adobe After Effects. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Malicious File (T1204.002); ranked at the 4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

After Effects versions 25.6 and earlier are affected by a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability that could lead to application denial-of-service. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to crash the application, causing disruption to services. Exploitation of this issue requires user…

more

interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1204.002 Malicious File Execution
An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

NULL dereference enables app DoS via malicious file opened by user (T1204.002); maps to application exploitation for endpoint DoS (T1499.004).

Confidence: MEDIUM · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-34703Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-47109Same product: Adobe After Effects
CVE-2025-27185Same product: Adobe After Effects
CVE-2026-34704Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-34662Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-21288Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-21593Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-34137Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-47069Same product: Adobe After Effects
CVE-2025-21155Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

adobe
after effects
≤ 25.6.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • SI-3 Malicious Code Protection
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • SI-3 Malicious Code Protection
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match
prevent

Directly requires applying vendor patches that eliminate the NULL pointer dereference in After Effects file parsing.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match
prevent

Enforces validation of all input data (including file contents) before processing, blocking the malformed input that triggers the crash.

SI-3 Malicious Code Protection partial match
preventdetect

Malicious-code and file-scanning mechanisms can identify and block crafted files designed to exploit the After Effects parser.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References